System and method for directing attention to web site functionality

ABSTRACT

A system determines if functionality offered via a Web site is being underutilizing by a user, e.g., not being using at all or not being using with some desired degree of regularity. When it is determined that the functionality offered via the Web site is being underutilized by the user, the system provides to content of the Web site a cue, e.g., audio and/or visual, for directing the attention of the user to the functionality offered via the Web site.

RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/432,948, filed on May 12, 2006, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The following relates generally to e-commerce and, more particularly,relates to a system and method for directing the attention of a user tofunctionality offered via a Web site.

In the art it is known to monitor interactions of a user with a Website. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,007, which is incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety, describes a system and method that tracksinteraction of a user with content provided by a Web site. To this end,input made by a user as the user interacts with Web page(s) thatcomprise the Web site, such as mouse movements, button clicks, typing,etc., is streamed back to a tracking server and stored. The storedinformation related to the user's interactions with the Web site maythen be analyzed and used, for example, to redesign the Web site so asto make it more user friendly or more easily navigable.

Published U.S. Application No. 2005/0044139, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety, also describes a system and methodin which interactions of a user with a Web site are monitored by keepinglogs of clicks on Web page links. For this purpose, a Web page developerincludes a link identifier in a selectable link of a Web page. When theselectable link is clicked on by a client, the link identifier triggersa click tracking system to initiate click tracking for that particularlink. The click on the link is then logged by a tracking server and theclient is redirected to a destination specified in the link. Usagepatterns may then be derived from statistics generated from the logfiles on the tracking server.

Published U.S. Application No. 2006/0015614, incorporated herein byreference, additionally describes a system and method which monitorsinteractions of a user with a Web site by tracking clicks for thepurpose of administering Web site referral fees.

While these and other known methods for monitoring interactions of auser with a Web site have been advantageously used to collectinformation for a myriad of different purposes, a need still remains fora system and method which utilizes information gained from monitoringinteractions of a user with a Web site to advantageously direct theattention of a user to functionality offered via a Web site.

SUMMARY

To address this and other needs, disclosed hereinafter is a system andmethod that uses information gained from monitoring interactions of userwith a Web site to direct the attention of a user to functionalityoffered via a Web site (e.g., further content, tool(s), user interfaceelement(s), etc. which are individually and collectively referred to as“functionality”). More particularly, the described system and methoddetermines which functionality on a Web site a user is underutilizing,e.g., not using at all or not using with some desired degree ofregularity. In the event that it is determined that a user isunderutilizing functionality offered by the Web site, the attention ofthe user may be directed to the functionality using an attention gettingdevice.

By way of example, the attention of the user may be directed to theunderutilized functionality by manipulating the appearance of a Web pagegraphical user interface element (e.g., a link by which thefunctionality is made accessible). The appearance of the graphical userinterface element may be manipulated by blinking the element, byproviding the element with one or more of a font, size, color,background, etc. that is different or otherwise stands out from otherelements that also appear on the Web page, and/or by captioning theelement such as by displaying a pointer to the element, by display amouse-over window when a pointing device is moved over the element, etc.as needed. Still further, a Web site page may be provided with adisplayable field, e.g., a banner advertising field, in which theunderutilized functionality and/or its advantages may be called to theattention of a user as needed. Yet further, audio output may accompany aWeb site page in which the underutilized functionality and/or itsadvantages may be called to the attention of a user as needed. It willbe appreciated that these examples of visual and audio cues that may beprovided to Web site content are not intended to be limiting and thatother visual and audio cues may be provided to Web site content for thissame purpose.

As will therefore be appreciated, the described system and method has,among others, the advantage of directing the attention of a user tofunctionality of a Web site that the user may not otherwise be aware isavailable at the Web site.

While the foregoing generally describes a system and method fordirecting the attention of a user to functionality offered via a Website, a better understanding of the objects, advantages, features,properties and relationships of the system and method will be obtainedfrom the following detailed description and accompanying drawings whichset forth illustrative embodiments which are indicative of the variousways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the described system and method fordirecting the attention of a user to functionality offered via a Website reference may be had to preferred embodiments shown in thefollowing drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary system for directing theattention of a user to functionality offered via a Web site; and

FIGS. 2-7 are screen shots illustrating exemplary methods of providingcues to Web site content which serve to direct the attention of a userto functionality offered via a Web site.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following describes, with reference to the drawings, an exemplarysystem for monitoring interactions of a user with a Web site for thepurpose of directing the attention of a user to functionality offeredvia the Web site. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the system will be describedin the context of a plurality of processing devices linked via anetwork, such as the World Wide Web or the Internet. In this regard, aclient processing device 20, illustrated in the exemplary form of acomputer system, provides a means for a user to access a Web sitecontent server 68 via the network and thereby gain access to content,such as media, data, Web pages, an electronic catalog, etc., stored in arepository 68A associated with the content server 68. Furthermore, theWeb site content server 68 and/or the client device 20 includesfunctionality which allows the system to monitor how a user interactswith the Web site content offered via the Web site content server 68.Information relevant to how the user interacts with the content offeredby the Web site content server 68 may be stored and then used todynamically modify the content for the purpose of directing theattention of a user to functionality offered via the Web site. Theinformation relevant to how the user interacts with the content offeredby the Web site may be stored in the repository 68A associated with thecontent server 68 and may be further indexed to a particular user (e.g.,using their log-in information or other information which the contentserver 68 may use to recognize the user) and/or one or more groups ofusers having one or more demographics deemed to be similar to arecognized user being monitored, e.g., from the same region, incomelevel, profession, etc. The information relevant to how the userinteracts with the content offered by the Web site may also be stored onthe client computing device 20 of a user, for example in cases where auser has not logged onto the Web site content server 68 and isanonymously navigating the content provided by the Web site contentserver 68. In this case, the information relevant to how a userinteracts with the content offered by the Web site content server 68 maybe stored in, for example, a cookie placed onto the client computingdevice 20 using well known techniques. Since the manner by which theclient device 20 is used to access and navigate the Web site offered bythe Web site content server 68, the manner by which the Web site contentserver 68 makes content available to the client device 20, and themanner by which the Web site usage is monitored are all well known inthe art, they will not be discussed herein for the sake of brevity.

For performing the functions required of the computing devices 20 and68, the computing devices include computer executable instructions thatreside in program modules which may include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types. Accordingly, those skilled inthe art will appreciate that the computing devices may be embodied inany device having the ability to execute instructions such as, by way ofexample, a personal computer, mainframe computer, personal-digitalassistant (“PDA”), cellular telephone, or the like. Furthermore, whilethe computing devices within the system are illustrated as respectivesingle devices, those skilled in the art will also appreciate that thevarious tasks described hereinafter may be practiced in a distributedenvironment having multiple processing devices linked via a local orwide-area network whereby the executable instructions may be associatedwith and/or executed by one or more of multiple processing devices.

More particularly, considering client computing device 20, which is alsorepresentative of all of the computing devices illustrated in FIG. 1,for performing the various tasks in accordance with the executableinstructions, the client computing device 20 preferably include one ormore processing units 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked viaa bus 26. Without limitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, aperipheral bus, and/or a local bus using any of a variety of well knownbus architectures. As needed for any particular purpose, the systemmemory 24 may include read only memory (ROM) 28 and/or random accessmemory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devices may also be made accessibleto the processing device 20 by means of, for example, a hard disk driveinterface 32, a removable magnetic disk drive interface 34, and/or anoptical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood, these devices,which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectively allow forreading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from or writing to aremovable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writing to aremovable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other optical media.The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable media allowfor the nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules and other data for the client computingdevice 20. Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that othertypes of computer readable media that can store data may be used forthis same purpose. Examples of such media devices include, but are notlimited to, magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks,Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories, nano-drives, memorysticks, and other read/write and/or read-only memories.

A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of thememory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the client computing device 20, such as duringstart-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38,and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computerexecutable instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or moreapplications programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules50, and/or program data 52. Still further, computer-executableinstructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devicesas needed, for example, via a network connection.

A user may enter commands and information into the client computingdevice 20 through input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointingdevice 56. While not illustrated, other input devices may include amicrophone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, etc. These and otherinput devices would typically be connected to the processing unit 22 bymeans of an interface 58 which, in turn, would be coupled to the bus 26.Input devices may be connected to the processor 22 using interfaces suchas, for example, a parallel port, game port, firewire, universal serialbus (USB), or the like. To receive information from the client computingdevice 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device may also beconnected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a video adapter 62. Inaddition to the monitor 60, the client computing device 20 may alsoinclude other peripheral output devices such as a speaker 53.

As further illustrated in FIG. 1, the client computing device 20 haslogical connections to one or more remote computing devices, such as thecontent server 68 which, as noted above, may include many or all of theelements described above relative to the client computing device 20 asneeded for performing its assigned tasks. Communications between theclient computing device 20 and the content server 68 may be exchangedvia a further processing device, such as network router 72, that isresponsible for network routing. Communications with the network router72 may be performed via a network interface component 73.

As discussed above, for the purpose of directing the attention of a userto functionality offered via the Web site, the system functions tomonitor interactions of one or more users with content that comprisesthe Web site. In this regard, the system may monitor one or more of thefollowing without limitation: locations to which a mouse is moved withindisplayed content; links to content that are being activated; a timeduring which Web pages or other content is being viewed or accessed;search requests being entered by a user; etc. The information gatheredfrom the Web site usage monitoring may then be used to supplement thecontent being offered by the server with audio or visual cues that willfunction to direct the attention of the user to functionality that is,for example, considered to be underutilized by a particular user orgroup of users of which a particular user is a member (individually andcollectively referred to as “user”). The information gathered from theWeb site usage monitoring may also be used to automatically take theuser directly to the functionality that is being underutilized.

By way of example with reference to FIG. 2, by monitoring interactionsof a user with the Web site, e.g., by performing classical click-streamanalysis, it may be determined that the user is underutilizing the“product index” functionality offered by the Web site, e.g., the userhas never clicked on the “product index” graphical user interfaceelement 202, has not clicked on the “product index” graphical userinterface element 202 within a given number of Web site (or Web page)accesses, has not clicked on the “product index” graphical userinterface element 202 within a given number of clicks on other graphicaluser interface elements, has not clicked on the “product index”graphical user interface element 202 within a given period of time, etc.In response to this determined underutilization of the “product index”functionality, the content of the Web site, e.g., the Web pageillustrated in FIG. 2, may be supplemented with an audio or visual cueto call the attention of the user to the “product index” graphical userinterface element 202 and, accordingly, the functionality that will bemade available to the user should the user click upon the “productindex” graphical user interface element 202. In the example illustratedin FIG. 2, a visual cue, in the form of an element 204, e.g., an image,that encircles the “product index” graphical user interface element 202is provided to the content, i.e., displayed in the content, to call theattention of the user to the underutilized functionality. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 3, a visual cue in the form of an element 304 thatmay flash adjacent to and which points to a graphical user interfaceelement, e.g., the “fasteners” graphical user interface element 302, isprovided to the content to call the attention of the user to theunderutilized functionality associated with the graphical user interfaceelement 302. In the example illustrated in FIG. 4, a visual cue in theform of a pop-up element 404 that appears when a pointing device ismoved over a graphical user interface element, e.g., the “catalog no.397 (pdf)” graphical user interface element 402, is provided to thecontent to call the attention of the user to the underutilizedfunctionality associated with the graphical user interface element 402.In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, an audio cue in the form on anannouncement that is to be emitted from speaker 53 upon access to theillustrated Web page, e.g., an audio segment which states “repair partsare available by clicking upon the repair parts tab,” is provided to thecontent to call the attention of the user to an underutilizedfunctionality, e.g., the functionality that is available upon the userclicking the “repair parts” graphical user interface element 504. Itwill be appreciated that these illustrated visual and audio cues are notintended to be limiting and that other visual and/or audio cues may beprovided to content to serve the same purpose.

The system may also function to monitor interactions of a user with aWeb site while also considering the contextual relevance of the usage tofunctionality offered via the Web site. By way of example only, thesystem may consider the contextual relevance of search terms entered bya user as the user interacts with the Web site. In this manner, thesystem may determine based upon repeated usage of a search term (such as“motor”) and monitored non-usage of Web site offered functionality thatis contextually related to the search term (such as the “MotorMatch”brand functionality which provides a selection guide for findingmotors), that functionality that is contextually related to a searchterm that is being repeatedly used by a user should be called to theattention of that user. Accordingly, as illustrated in FIG. 6, bymonitoring usage of the search field 601 and usage of the graphical userinterface elements, particularly graphical user interface element 602which, when activated, launches the “MotorMatch” brand selection guide,the system can determine if a user is repeatedly searching for motorsusing keywords while not taking advantage of a tool which is providedspecifically for the purpose of making it easier to find motors. Basedupon this determination, the system may then provide a visual or audiocue, e.g., cue 604, to the content of the Web site to thereby direct theuser to the underutilized functionality, e.g., a graphical userinterface element 602 that may be activated to instantiate theunderutilized functionality. In this example, the cue 604 can beprovided to the content the next time the user access the Web page afterthe user has used the keyword “motor” a predetermined number of timeswithout an intervening usage of the functionality provided by the“MotorMatch” brand tool.

The system may additionally function to monitor interactions of a userwith the Web site to determine if a user is navigating within or toparticular content locations. For example, the system may determinewhether the user is clicking on graphical user interface elements thatare found at a particular location within the content, e.g., at thebottom of Web page, whether the user is using a scroll bar to view aparticular location within the content, e.g., using the scroll bar todisplay the bottom of a Web page, whether the user has moved a mousewithin a particular area of content, etc. Accordingly, as illustrated inFIG. 7, by monitoring location indicative usage of the content, thesystem can determine that the attention of a user might need to be drawnto functionality that might be found in the underutilized areas of thecontent. Based upon this determination, the system may then provide avisual or audio cue to the content, e.g., cue 704, to thereby direct theuser to the underutilized functionality. In this example, the cue 704 isin the form of an advertising banner that is intended to direct theattention of the user to the underutilized content. As will also beappreciated, the advertising banner cue 704 may also be provided with anaccompanying link 705 which, when actuated, will automatically cause theuser to be moved to the content (whether within a given Web page, toanother Web page, etc.) to thereby expose to the user the functionalityit is desired that the user see.

When the system determines that a visual and/or audio cue is desired tobe provided to the content to thereby call the attention of a user tofunctionality made available via the Web site, the visual and/or audiocue may be presented to the user for one or more of a predeterminednumber of accesses to the Web site (or Web page), a predetermined periodof time, and/or until the user interacts with the functionality, etc.

It will also be appreciated that the cue may take the form of anautomatic launching of the functionality that is being underutilized. Byway of example only, the attention of a user may be drawn to theunderutilized “MotorMatch” brand tool by the system automaticallylaunching the “MotorMatch” brand tool in response to the user using thesearch term “motor” a predetermined number of times without an access tothe “MotorMatch” brand tool. Similarly, the system may draw theattention of a user to underutilized functionality by automaticallytaking the user to particular content of the Web site associated withthe underutilized functionality when certain monitored conditions havebeen met, e.g., the system may move the displayed content to focus onthe “MotorMatch” brand tool link, may move the user's mouse cursor tothe “MotorMatch” brand tool link, etc.

To provide the visual or audio cues to a user, standard Web page designtechniques may be employed. For example, since standard HTML allows forthe modification of visual characteristics of textual information, theattention of a user may be drawn to a particular functionality by addingattention-getting text next to or near to the functionality as notedabove. Furthermore, since standard HTML allows for the changing of fontsize, font colors, font types, etc., of Web page textual elements, thoseof ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate how to provideattention-getting text with one or more characteristics that will bedistinct from the characteristics of nearby Web page elements. Likewise,those of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate how to usestandard HTML programming techniques to similarly modify the font size,font color, font type, etc. of a link to functionality to therebyprovide the link with one or more characteristics that will be distinctfrom the characteristics of other Web page elements. In this regard, itwill be understood that providing unique treatment to a link in agrouping of links will make that particular link (and its associatedfunctionality) stand out.

Yet further, since standard HTML provides the ability to include imageswithin Web pages, the attention of a user may be drawn to a particularfunctionality by adding an attention-getting image next to or near tothe functionality as was also noted above. The attention getting imagemay also serve as a direct link to the functionality. To draw theattention of a user to an image, those of ordinary skill will appreciatethat there are numerous standard techniques that can be used. Forexample, a Web page may be provided with an image that functions todisrupt the common theme or look-and-feel of a given webpage whereuponthis disruption functions to gain the attention of the user, an imagemay be used that has a substantially different color when compared toother colors of a Web page or from the other colors in a particular areaof a Web page, an image may be caused to blink, an image may be providedwith a unique shape, etc. It will also be understood by those ofordinary skill that the attention of a user may be drawn to an image andhence functionality associated with the image by animating the imageusing, for example, standard GIF technology. It will be additionallyunderstood by those of ordinary skill that a browser plug-in or thelike, e.g., using Macromedia Flash Player, Ajax, etc., may also be usedto provide the attention getting image or animation. For example, thebrowser plug-in can be programmed to cause a particular text link, imagelink, or area of the webpage to be encircled to thereby draw attentionto functionality. The encircling element can have its color andappearance designed to maximize its ability to draw attention to thatarea of the webpage. Browser plug-in technology might also be utilizedto, for example, provide an animation device that might appear on onepart of the Web page and move to another part of the Web page to directa user to functionality in or near the area to which the movinganimation device is directed.

Since HTML also allows Web pages to be provided with audio, e.g., WAVfiles, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciated how toinclude audio cues to a Web page for the purpose of playing a messagefor the user to hear, for example when the Web page is loaded into theusers computer. As discussed above, these audio segments can containverbal information which inform the user to what area of the Web page,i.e., what functionality, the user might want to pay particularattention to.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been described indetail, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and alternatives to those details could be developed inlight of the overall teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, theparticular arrangement disclosed is meant to be illustrative only andnot limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given thefull breadth of the appended claims and any equivalents thereof.

1. A non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereoninstructions which, when executed by a computer, performing stepscomprising: receiving from a computing device of a user a request toaccess a Web page associated with a Web site; using informationretrieved from the computing device of the user to determine if thecomputing device of the user has been used to access the Web page of theWeb site a predetermined number of times previous to the request;providing to the computing device of the user, in response to therequest, the Web page associated with the Web site; and when it isdetermined from the information retrieved from the computing device ofthe user that the computing device of the user has been used to accessthe Web site less than the predetermined number of time previous to therequest, further providing with the Web page associated with the Website a cue wherein the cue functions to inform the user of one or morefunctionalities that are available for use via the Web site.
 2. Thenon-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 1, whereinthe instructions use retrieved cookie information from the computingdevice of the user to determine if the computing device of the user hasbeen used to access the Web site less than the predetermined number oftime previous to the request.
 3. The non-transitory computer readablemedia as recited in claim 1, wherein the cue comprises an audio cue. 4.The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 1,wherein the cue comprises a visual cue.
 5. The non-transitory computerreadable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the visual cue comprises abanner added to the Web page associated with the Web site.
 6. Thenon-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 5, whereinthe banner added to the Web page associated with the Web site comprisesone or more links activable to take the user directly to the one or morefunctionalities that are available for use via the Web site.
 7. Thenon-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 4, whereinthe visual cue comprises a pop-up added to the Web page associated withthe Web site.
 8. The non-transitory computer readable media as recitedin claim 7, wherein the pop-up added to the Web page associated with theWeb site comprises one or more links activable to take the user directlyto the one or more functionalities that are available for use via theWeb site.
 9. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited inclaim 4, wherein the visual cue comprises an image added to the Web pageassociated with the Web site.
 10. The non-transitory computer readablemedia as recited in claim 9, wherein the image added to the Web pageassociated with the Web site comprises one or more links activable totake the user directly to the one or more functionalities that areavailable for use via the Web site.
 11. The non-transitory computerreadable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the visual cue comprisestext that is added to content of the Web page associated with the Website.
 12. The non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim11, wherein the text added to content of the Web page associated withthe Web site comprises one or more links activable to take the userdirectly to the one or more functionalities that are available for usevia the Web site.
 13. The non-transitory computer readable media asrecited in claim 4, wherein the visual cue comprises an animation addedto the Web page associated with the Web site.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the cue is causedto be added to the Web page associated with the Web site for apredetermined period of time.
 15. The non-transitory computer readablemedia as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more functionalitiesthat are available for use via the Web site comprise at least aselection guide functionality.